Another red-flagged session, this time, meant I got stranded half-way around the TT course, but I still got a couple of decent laps in on the big bike, and half a lap on the 600.
Yesterday we made some changes to the suspension which improved the FlyaSpitfire.com Kawasaki, and today we’ve had some work done on the dyno to improve the fuelling. It had been running a bit rich at the top end of the rev range, so Frank, the Dyno man leaned it off a little bit and found us a bit more power. Another 5bhp to be precise. We’re now running 194bhp (according to the dyno machine here in the paddock).
An added bonus of leaning the fuel map off is that I’m not using quite so much fuel. The bike had been coughing and spluttering a tiny bit coming out of the Creg ny Baa (a couple of miles from the finish-line) but now we can get all the way to the home straight before there are any fuel starvation problems.
122mph was my best lap speed from tonight, which is a bit quicker than yesterday, so we’re moving in the right direction.
After a couple of laps on the big bike, I jumped on the Surf Bar Hull Triumph for a quick lap but, as I said, I didn’t make it all the way round before the red flags came out and I had to park it up. The nice folks manning the marshal point there were good enough to make us a brew and fetch the biscuits out, so the hour or so sat around waiting wasn’t so bad.
I’ve heard the crash that caused the red flag was towards the beginning of the lap, but I haven’t heard anything else, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that whoever is involved is ok.
After a little wile sat around chatting to the marshals and the other lads that had stopped with me at Glentrammen, we heard the sound of race bikes approaching us, following a traveling marshal, and were told to join the back of the queue and follow them back to the pits.
So that’s me just got back now. And I’m glad to be back because I’m absolutely exhausted. I didn’t sleep terribly well last night because I was suffering with a sore throat… a sore throat which has since been diagnosed by the doc as tonsilitis. They’ve given me some penicillin to try and nip the infection in the bud, and I’m keeping myself topped up with paracetamol and ibuprofen to ease the pain and treat the fever-like symptoms. I don’t actually feel too poorly, just completely exhausted, so I think I’m going to go to bed.
Thanks to everyone who’s been in touch, and wished us luck. It really does mean a lot.
Night night
